One-time Celtic starlet Darren O’Dea succeeded Torsten Frings at Toronto FC and worked under Nicholas Anelka at Mumbai City.
It’s fair to say that Darren O’Dea has experienced more by the age of 30 than most players in their entire career.
Now at Dundee, the former Celtic youth teamer has racked up the air miles between moving from Glasgow to Dens Park. As if three successive seasons out on loan at Reading, Leeds United and Ipswich Town didn’t quell O’Dea’s wanderlust, he then embarked on a jet-lag inducing trip around five countries, not to mention three continents, in the space of just five years.
After leaving Celtic in 2012, O’Dea moved to Toronto FC in Canada, working under former Plymouth boss Paul Mariner and succeeding Germany legend Torsten Frings as captain. Well, this is a league where Bradley Wright-Phillips can partner Thierry Henry after all.
And no doubt O’Dea was longing for the snow-flecked metropolis of Toronto when forced to live at the training ground of his next club, Ukrainian outfit Metalurh Donetsk, due to the political unrest in the Eastern European nation.
The low point? Being threatened by a machine gun wielding soldier after attempting to use the toilet at a restaurant. “Hostile and surreal”; that was O’Dea’s astute way of summing up the situation, as reported by the BBC.
But how does he find himself at Dundee in 2017? Well, via 20 disastrous appearances at a free-falling Blackpool and nine games under Nicholas Anelka at Indian Super League side Mumbai City. Yes, O’Dea did once share a division with Roberto Carlos, Adrian Mutu and Simao Sabrosa.
These days, however, the well-travelled defender is much closer to home. Not that he’s enjoying a particularly happy homecoming, particularly after Dundee’s 7-0 home defeat to Aberdeen on Saturday.
Though at least he can use the toilet in peace.
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